What's a normal amount of AIP to finish a 7/7 80planet game with?

[Blahness]

Wondering how low I should be looking to keep the AIP.  Is keeping it under 1000 good enough, or will I die if it gets above 500 or so?

[Mánagarmr]

If nothing has changed much in the latest years, you should be looking at 400-ish for the endgame after taking the first homeworld. 1000 AIP will outright kill you on most difficulties, but 300-400 when assaulting the homeworlds should be the ballpark. I've heard people going higher, but that might require some cheese. I haven't played a full game in a long time, so I don't know for sure.

[Kahuna]

Agreed. ~400 AIP on 10/10 difficulty in the end game is manageable for some time. If you have invested vast majority on defensive techs that is. However it may require heavy use of Lightning Warheads. At that point using a nuke to stop a CPA wouldnt make much of a difference. In terms of increasing the difficulty by adding AIP I mean. Depends on AI types too. That game was vs RaidEngine/Peacemaker // Alarmist/Quadratic.

So I'd estimate the max AIP being about 400. Adding +100 for every 1,0 difficulty levels decreased.

[Pumpkin]

Hey, I'm sure if we count the threads by subjects we'll find this question is the most common!
 
I'm often somewhere between 100 and 150 AIP when going for the first homeworld assault, but I know I'm a low AIP player. For me, 200 AIP is huge!

IIRC, I managed to win a game below 100 AIP (well, before assault), but I can't remember if it was at 7/7 or 8/8. I took nothing more than the necesarry CSG worlds, and maybe one more, and didn't touched the superterminal. Man, knowledge and hacking were sooo low!

[TheVampire100]

They should call you the assassin.
I never manage that amount of low AIP, not even on easier games.

[Jotto]

I'll toss in my anecdote.  From the last time I played on an 80-planet map, the "You Win" screen shows 278 AIP.  Of course, I always destroy all data centers whenever convenient, and I destroy the co-processors just before taking the first AI homeworld.  I did no hacking at all, saving the hacking progress for the superterminal.  Unfortunately I didn't get as much out of the superterminal as I could, aborting relatively early.  It still worked out to be a free planet - in fact the net AIP change was maybe -20.

I don't take a planet unless it has a fabricator, ARS, zenith power generator, advanced factory, advanced starship constructor, or superterminal.  Naturally, redundant advanced factories/starship constructors are not taken, and the most strategic one is picked.  After all that, I'll only take more planets if the shield generator networks force me to, or if an AI homeworld is buried out of the way and I need to take something adjacent just make the assault more accessible.  When I have a choice, I go for what will give my planets a good spread throughout the galaxy.  My planets are generally spread out and isolated; I don't do chokepoints.  I don't know what kind of map you play on, but mine is always "Realistic" and the wormhole layout is usually a galactic spaghetti tangle.

My AIP playstyle is on the low side, but not as ninja/anemic as some other players.

[Kahuna]

I don't take a planet unless it has a fabricator, ARS, zenith power generator, advanced factory, advanced starship constructor, or superterminal.  Naturally, redundant advanced factories/starship constructors are not taken, and the most strategic one is picked.  After all that, I'll only take more planets if the shield generator networks force me to, or if an AI homeworld is buried out of the way and I need to take something adjacent just make the assault more accessible.  When I have a choice, I go for what will give my planets a good spread throughout the galaxy.  My planets are generally spread out and isolated; I don't do chokepoints.  I don't know what kind of map you play on, but mine is always "Realistic" and the wormhole layout is usually a galactic spaghetti tangle.

My AIP playstyle is on the low side, but not as ninja/anemic as some other players.

That's the way to go. And that's why your AIP is below 300. Usually there's no need to go above that. You could get away with even less AIP if you didn't capture all the fabricators. You probably don't need all of them to win although they do help.

I did no hacking at all, saving the hacking progress for the superterminal.  Unfortunately I didn't get as much out of the superterminal as I could, aborting relatively early.

Try beachheading and nuking the Superterminal next time.

[Jotto]

I don't take a planet unless it has a fabricator, ARS, zenith power generator, advanced factory, advanced starship constructor, or superterminal.  Naturally, redundant advanced factories/starship constructors are not taken, and the most strategic one is picked.  After all that, I'll only take more planets if the shield generator networks force me to, or if an AI homeworld is buried out of the way and I need to take something adjacent just make the assault more accessible.  When I have a choice, I go for what will give my planets a good spread throughout the galaxy.  My planets are generally spread out and isolated; I don't do chokepoints.  I don't know what kind of map you play on, but mine is always "Realistic" and the wormhole layout is usually a galactic spaghetti tangle.

My AIP playstyle is on the low side, but not as ninja/anemic as some other players.

That's the way to go. And that's why your AIP is below 300. Usually there's no need to go above that. You could get away with even less AIP if you didn't capture all the fabricators. You probably don't need all of them to win although they do help.

I did no hacking at all, saving the hacking progress for the superterminal.  Unfortunately I didn't get as much out of the superterminal as I could, aborting relatively early.

Try beachheading and nuking the Superterminal next time

So I decided to try out your suggestion.  Having never tried nukes before, I kept it conservative and just built a bunch of the +1 and +2 AIP lightning ones.  They were very helpful, and definitely let me sit on the superterminal longer.  I also had a pretty strong beachhead with clusters of mark 1 through 4 turrets, about 50 mk 3 engineers and around 30 remains rebuilders, all set to be on automatic FRD so the turrets had excellent staying power.  As the last line of defense, my 2.7k fleet was near my command station.  The superterminal could be easily destroyed any time with sentinel frigates.  This time it wasn't just a "free planet" from the AIP reduction.  Taking the planet brought AIP to 249, and I finished the Superterminal operation with 199, for a net of -30.  I am pleased, and intend to keep dabbling in these nukes in future games.

So thank you for the good tip.  You have many, Kahuna.

I beat the AI homeworlds.  This was a 120-planet map, finishing with 290 effective AIP and 24 planets.